1. Activity Four
Tagging and Social
Bookmarking

2. What are tags?
• User generated labels commonly known as tags applied to bookmakrs,
photos, book collections etc to aid in easy retrieval.
• The principle of tagging is similar to a library cataloguing its resources.
• Folk taxonomy = folksonomy
• Folksonomy is a decentralised, social approach to creating metadata for
digital resources.
• Advantages of tags – cheap and easy to apply, promote serendipity,
community focused
• Disadvantages of tags – imprecision of terms, uncontrolled, little or no
synonym control

3. What are tag clouds?
• Visual depiction of a groups of tags.
• Usually displayed alphabetically with popularity shown through font size and
colour.

4. What are social bookmarks?
• They are shared internet bookmarks.
• It is just like having your internet favourites on your desktop which are
available from whether you access the internet.
• You are able to share these ‘bookmarks’ with others through social
bookmarking websites.
• Through tagging you are able to organize your bookmarks into categories
and in some cases comments are able to be added to these bookmarks.
• Through the use of social bookmarking you are able to find new websites
that others have tagged.

5. Social bookmarking in
plain english
Watch this short video on social bookmarking produced
by the Common Craft Show.
(This video can also be found at Blip.tv and TeacherTube.)

6. Examples of social
bookmarking tools

7. How are libraries using it?
• MTagger – University of Michigan
• Social bookmarking and
tagging tool that allows library
users to tag any resource
found within the library
website, catalogue, digital
image collection or the
Internet
• WHY? – to allow users to
easily locate resources they
would like to reuse using their
own terms to define the
resource, just like users
adding their own subject
keywords to catalogue
records

8. Virtual reference
Del.icio.us links on a collection
library web site

9. Tags in a
catalogue
record

10. Time to play

11. Investigate Tags
As tagging is similar to adding subject headings in catalogue records we will
get you to visit a few sites, conduct searches using the same tags to compare
results.
1. Use the following terms when conducting your searches:
• web 2.0
• asthma
• Paris
2. Go to http://del.icio.us/ and search the term Web 2.0. You will find the
search box in the top right hand corner.

12. 3. Can you find?
• the number of results retrieved
• the number of people who have saved the same bookmarks
• what are some of the related tags
4. Repeat the same process for the terms asthma and Paris.

13. 5. Go to www.flickr.com and conduct searches using the terms web 2.0,
Paris and asthma.
6. Can you find?
• the number of results retrieved
• the number of people who have used the same tag
• what are some of the related tags

14. 7. Go to HealthCat via QHEPS and conduct keyword searches of the terms
web 2.0, asthma, and Paris.
8. How do the results differ from those in del.icio.us and Flickr?

15. Create social bookmarks
1. Go to http://www.2collab.com
This tool is produced by
Elsevier. Can you spot the
2collab link in ScienceDirect.
2. Click on Register in the top right
hand corner.
3. Complete the registration form.
4. After completing the registration
form you will receive a
verification email in your
nominated email account.
Follow instructions in the email
to verify your account.

16. 5. To add your first bookmark, click on the dropdown arrow entitled
Bookmarks and select Create Bookmark.

17. 6. Enter the URL of the web page
you are bookmarking in the URL
field.
7. Enter a title in the Title field.
8. You are welcome to add any
other descriptive information,
including tags in the fields
provided.
9. Click Submit Bookmark.
10. You have now successfully
created a bookmark.

18. 11. Add at least 5 more bookmarks to your 2collab account with at least one
tag for each bookmark.
12. You may wish to try adding a bookmark from ScienceDirect by clicking on
the 2collab icon next to a journal citation.
Optional Activity
Adding 2collab buttons in Internet Explorer.
• Follow the tutorial located at http://www.2collab.com/addtocollabIE

19. Blog prompts
• Comment on your findings from your searches in del.icio.us, Flickr and
HealthCat.
• What is different when users tag items vs information professionals?
• Did you find what you expected to see?
• Can you see a future where tags replaces subject headings in catalogue
records?
• What potential can you see for social bookmarking tools in libraries? Or for
personal use?

20. Other tools to try
2collab is only one of many social bookmarking tools that are available. You
may like to try a different social bookmarking tool as functionality and target
audience differs between each.
Some of the other tools include:
This tool is marketed
at researchers.

21. Further reading
• Connotea (Electronic Resources Review) J Med Libr Assoc 96 (2) April
2008
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=2268226&blobtype=
pdf
• An introduction to folksonomies (UKOLN)
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/qa-focus/documents/briefings/briefing-81/html/
• Use Of Social Tagging Services At Events (UKOLN)
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/qa-focus/documents/briefings/briefing-105/html/
• 7 things you should know about social bookmarking
http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7001.pdf